For more information, visit us online at faith.yale.edu. We'd invite you to bring that same joy in supporting this work. When people have worked to build entire systems to break you, they are angry that you still can have joy. The more dehumanizing the circumstances, the more we need these markers of our humanity. Black History Month, the creation and celebration of it, is such a cause and proof that a powerful story can change the world! "Oh, the Spirit's coming." Only a few animal species celebrate, and the ones that do have two things in common with humans: theyre highly intelligent and highly social. Watching a pride parade, teeming with people dressed in all shades of ROY G BIV, the line between protest and party blurs, and its hard to sit on the sidelines in judgment. They smooth tensions and break down barriers. I think there are artists, musicians, painters, and others who have shown that there's possibilities of living in being sustained by a form of joy that is not homogeneous, that is fully captured inside, if you willan expanding world of different people being brought together inside the sheer love of the music, for example. Thats right, dancing. For me, the work of an organization like Publicolor, which paints neglected New York City schools with vibrant colors, restores abundance to a place where this false scarcity has been imposed. Tricia Hersey, Rest Is Resistance: A Manifesto. When he first came to my house, I propped up her bright yellow shade with open window and a vase of flowers (post card size) behind his first fish bowl. Put yourself in the way of beauty." Miroslav Volf: I don't know whether I'm maybe romanticizing things, but it seemed to me that from what I have observed growing up, but also when I have traveled, that I find more joy in the midst of oppression in almost paradoxical way, than I find in plenty. Willie Jennings: My pleasure, Dr. Volf. $22. Lewis famously wrote in his autobiography, Surprised By Joy, "All joy reminds it is never a possession, always a desire for something longer ago or further away, or still about to be." We respect your privacy. Holocaust survivor and author Elie Wiesel described a memory of a fellow prisoner trading a ration of bread for materials with which to piece together a makeshift menorah during Hanukkah. Joy in that regard is a work that can become a state that can become a way of life. Willie Jennings: Yeah, this is where I wonder out loud if the life of Jesus, a kind of Christological intervention, is what's necessary for us to re-conceive joy that opens us out rather than encloses. The throngs of mourners and supporters lined the isles of the church, crowded the lobby and balcony areas, and spilled out of the church onto the outside lawn. Aesthetics of joy can also disrupt complacency, drawing much-needed attention to a cause. And that's what's key, the kind of mapping of joy that would be necessary to actually start to think about the reconstituting of a different reality of joy. Stories are told, jokes are told, people walk in, comments are made, and without you being spoken to directly, you've been spoken to. If you're in a position to support our show financially, please consider partnering with us. Eugene H. Peterson We are two abysses - a well staring at the sky. "Peace without justice is tyranny." - William Allen White. "Resistance is the secret of joy." Alice Walker 20. Following the success of their debut album Brutalism, the band started recording new material for their next album. Joy lets us reclaim our humanity. Willie Jennings: Public rituals bound to real space. Many of us have had the experience of being annoyed at a coworker, but then going to the company picnic, having a beer and a laugh together, and forgetting our annoyance. As I began to slip in the depths of my own sorrow and yield to the temptation to surrender my heart to the dreadfully stark nihilism in this ritual around black bodies, I looked up and saw Dariuss mother, Rishawna Myricks. You've come into a space that is not your own, and in some ways that space has claimed you as its own. Remember. The name "Ofglen" says nothing about who this woman really is; her only identity is as the Commander's property. Its a curious feature of autocratic regimes that forms of joy are often banned. Miroslav Volf: So you need a kind of public spaces and public rituals possibly. Joy Is a Beautiful Act of Resistance. And because of that, we probably have to press more deeply when we start to talk about the integrity of a Christian vision of joy until we understand that dynamic. "Secondary choices are always subordinate to a primary choice. Willie Jennings: To press even further, it could be that one thing under utilized by Christian intellectuals is precisely this latter reality that Jesus himself points us toward, a family that becomes reconfigure. No. Rated #20 in the best albums of 2018, and #2063 of all time album.. Rosa Parks stood up for her rightsshe actually didnt let the bus driver tell her what to do or abide by those rules and regulations about where she could sitshe fought for justice, and thats why African Americans are now able to sit in the front of the bus at this moment. And the clear example I'm drawing on is African diaspora communities in which there's a reality of joy built inside the forced segregation. Yet even the smallest kernel of it can move nations. As Cara Page says in an interview with Adrienne Maree Brown, If were not imagining where were going, then it will constantly just be pushing back outside from inside of cages, as opposed to imagining whats happening outside of cages. Hope is a form of emotional vision that stokes our motivation and fans the flames of change. Joy Is An Act of Resistance By Delonte Gholston, Contributor Pastor, Artist, Organizer Jun 23, 2017, 11:54 AM EDT | Updated Jun 26, 2017 This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. } They didn't have dreams of speaking other's language. And like an old cassette tape, the world presses stop, rewind, and play. Within the imperialist white supremacist capitalist cis-heteropatriarchy, we generate joy by defying dominator culture. Yet, as the onslaught of trauma and terror continues to reek havoc on our communities both through the systematic racism of state violence and through the deeply internalized racism of gang violence, families and communities like the Smith and Myricks families in Northwest Pasadena point each of us of the power of joy. And I hope you'll resist. Report; Come and join me and my colleagues on the AFP NYC IDEA Committee where we not only embrace inclusion, diversity, equity and access but we further these ideals within the Fundraising profession through planning, collaboration, implementation, and of courseJoy. While we can justifiably be concerned about rainbow-washing, its a measure of success that brands and companies see LBGTQ pride as something theyre eager (even desperate) to be associated with. My mother, and three sisters: Jean Cooper, Zwazzi Sowo and Lillian Mark! 330 Ellis St., San Francisco, CA 94102 | info@glide.org. //]]>. Telly's favorite artist was Alice Neel. C.S. We must walk a path of joy even against our doom. Resistance creates suffering. The collective representation of Black people in the industry is abysmal, as evidenced by multicultural children's publisher Lee & Low's baseline survey. And so we must risk delight. And we must know that to do so is not a distraction from resistance, but one of its greatest sources of power. Black joy, as an act of resistance against white supremacy, takes center stage on Juneteenth. Adreinne Waheed, photographer and author of the photo book Black Joy and Resistance documents, in its purest form, that the essence of happiness and enjoyment are inextricably linked to resistance. Joy - An Act of Resistance (Podcast Episode 2019) Quotes on IMDb: Memorable quotes and exchanges from movies, TV series and more. In Trinidad, the British banned drumming. What's killing your joy? If you need to flag this entry as abusive. One way is through joy in the present. Amplifying Black voices through news that matters. And I think this is one of the problems theologically in talking about joy that we don't put it on the ground sufficiently, to grasp the way in which joy is always embedded in the flows of community logics, the cultural logics of particular communities. This exposure to the idea that girls are just as powerful and important as the boys next to them is how we continue to resist oppression and advance womens rights. But another way that joy can support activism is that it disarms. Joy is the serious business of Heaven. Willie Jennings joins Miroslav Volf to discuss the definition of joy as an act of resistance against despair, the counterintuitive nature of cultivating joy in the midst of suffering, the commercialization of joy in Western culture, joy segregated by racism and slavery, how Jesus expands and corrects our understanding of joy. All in all, the church and multiple churches have been places of extreme joy, surprising joy, and to quote the title of a famous book by CS Lewis, places where I've been absolutely "surprised by joy," stunned by joy. Anne K. Ream is the founder of The Voices and Faces Project, a global storytelling project, the author of "Lived Though This: Listening to Sexual Violence Survivors," and a Founding Co-Chair at World Without Exploitation, the national coalition to end human trafficking and sexual exploitation. In communist Albania, the regime of Enver Hoxha famously banned the saxophone. And there's something very powerful about that because as one artist says, "It's how, especially oppressed in poor people, can make something really beautiful out of what has been thrown away." She is a badass! ", The commercialization of joy in the empire of advertisingcontrasting that with the peoples serious work of joy, The work and skill of making something beautiful out of what has been thrown away, Segregated joyjoy in African diaspora communities, Joy is always embedded in community logics, Geographies of joy: Christians tend not to think spatially, but we should, Hoping for joyous infection, where the space has claimed you as its own, Where can joy be found? Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. In the Gospel of John, Jesus explains that the very point and the purpose of his teachings on love and keeping his commands are "so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.". Willie Jennings: Despair in all of the ways that despair wants to drive us toward death, and wants to make death the final word. $j("#connectPrompt").show(); Growing up in the 90s, they were really my first exposure to feminism (lite) with the idea of Girl Power and that women could do anything despite what others thought or expected. Spiritual resistance refers to attempts by individuals to maintain their humanity, personal integrity, dignity, and sense of civilization in the face of Nazi attempts to dehumanize and degrade them. And that is: segregated joy is fundamentally a part of the reality of segregation, which means that it is a joy that in many instances is built on insult, is built on hatred of the other. That's what's necessary. Where fascism aims to instill fear, joy is the perfect resistance. When I think about strong, courageous women passionately working to advance social justice, which inherently means theyre fighting oppression every day, I think of my good friend Catalina Correa Salazar. 7. Round your celebration out by listening to your favorite R&B, Rock, or Country song knowing that those genres were derived from the melodious sounds of Jazz. Something went wrong while submitting the form. You have to have conditions set up where those people who have learned how to ride the winds of chaos can say to you, "Come on, let me show you how to do that." You can build walls all the way to the sky and I will find a way to fly above them. And so the question becomes for me: can there be a form of joy that helps to constitute identity that happens in the in-between, in the gathering of different peoples? This is joy for our time. "Black women have been conditioned to live for other people. Funded by the John Templeton foundation, gathering a diverse group of scholars and practitioners, including theologians, philosophers, pastors, psychologists, the project sought to restore joy to the center of Christian reflection, and what it means to live a good life, a life worthy of our humanity. Whether its the transcendent joy of sacred ritual or the simple joy of cultivating a garden, the pursuit of joy amid great struggle is a way to tend our humanity when it is most threatened. Bono asked, anticipating one reaction. And we'll be back with more next week. How does one cultivate joy? The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. But the most celebratory of all animals are our closest relatives, the chimpanzees. // logged into Facebook user but not a GR app user; show FB button As in so many fields, burnout is a serious risk, especially because activist work is rarely well-compensated and because the strong sense of personal responsibility many activists feel makes it hard to take breaks. And here I'm not thinking primarily about African-American or African diaspora communities, but I'm thinking about the way in which multiple communities, their joy is inside of a hard segregation. Thank you so much for the kind words, Helen! It requires you to choose it from a sea of other options. I am printing this post in order to keep the many good points at hand. At one level, it is tied to real spaces and places. He provides a perfectly painted picture that shows the pain, joy, and triumph of resistance. $j("#facebookRegPrompt").hide(); Black joy is, and always has been, an act of resistance. Mr. Lincoln also signed the Homestead Act that offered 100 acres of land for families who had the courage to settle the frontier and farm the . Henri Nouwen" 3. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day. Fundraising is the vehicle a worthy cause utilizes to traverse obstacles which would otherwise prevent it from being heard. Lee's grandaughter, Dione Sims, who is also a civil rights advocate, has been helping her in the . What would that space look like for you? This is great! Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. a piece on the power of the garden at Rikers Island. As I like to say, Christians, we are geographically adrift. This inexplicable power to dance in the midst of mourning is not to be smugly dismissed, as has many suggest, as some sort of slave religion or momentary hyper-spiritualized pie in the sky delusion. One of the ways it does this is by affirming our humanity. 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